The iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black.

The iron trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black.

Published by Scholastic Press  

Genre fantasy middle-grade

Pages 295 

From NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a riveting new series that defies what you think you know about the world of magic.

From two bestselling superstars, a dazzling and magical middle-grade collaboration centering on the students of the Magisterium, an academy for those with a propensity toward magic. In this first book, a new student comes to the Magisterium against his will -- is it because he is destined to be a powerful magician, or is the truth more twisted than that? It's a journey that will thrill you, surprise you, and make you wonder about the clear-cut distinction usually made between good and evil.

~goodreads~

What I thought: 

The Iron Trial was in my opinion a very clever and interesting fantasy book. Even though it’s middle-school, it felt as if I were reading a YA book. Cassandra Clare and Holly Black have done a beautiful job in portraying the characters and the world. I loved the magical concept. Whereas most books I have read about magicians and magic would feature a lot of spells and magic potions, this book was about the five elementals - water, wind, fire, air and chaos.

It was hard to put the book down, but due to a lot of exams I just had too. The story about Callum Hunt and his mission to fail at something he is finally good at kept me so on edge. The book has a lot of plot twists. It kept me guessing and wanting to get to know what Callum’s secret was –since even Callum didn’t know-

The book is really fast paced. Beginning with a sad prologue featuring Callum’s father, the book continues with the beginning of the trial. To eventually lead to the further explanation about the gripping prologue.  I thought this book was quite angsty – as far as middle-school can get angsty- and it contained a lot of interesting scenes of Callum and his team members completing tasks. Reading this book was a lot of fun and made me scream a little inside. Especially when Callum’s secret finally is revealed.

Something about Callum’s character I absolutely loved, was the fact that he was physically disabled (partly) Most main characters in books are perfect, bad-ass, reckless people. Not Callum, which made me happy. It displays that every person has the same chance to shine. You don’t have to be athletic, beautiful or clever to make it out there. Just be yourself.  

I absolutely loved this book and definitely recommend it. Don't be fooled by it being a middle-school book. Because to me it didn't feel like reading middle-school. The plot and the characters were so interesting and amazing. Also the writing was fantastic. 

Bonus; the book contains the questions Callum and the fellow students got during the first test of the trial. It was so much fun to try to awnser the questions. Totally looking forward to the next book that will probably come out in September 2015. 

 My spoilery thoughts: Please read the book first before reading this segment. 

Before we found out Aaron is the Makar in the story, I was absolutely sure that Callum would be the Makar. To me it made so much sense, because of his father wanting him not to go to the Magisterium in the first place.  

I was really into the book, it kept me guessing - something I think really makes a good book, to make the reader curious and wanting to read the whole story. The concept was very interesting. Growing up my favorite cartoon was Avatar the last air bender. The five elementals made me think of Avatar. I was always so curious about the whole concept about the elementals, so to me the concept of the magic was absolutely amazing. The only downside though was that the performing of the magic wasn’t really detailed, because obviously how are you going to describe the process of doing magic detailed. But it wasn’t annoying.

The scene in the old bowling centrum was amazing. After finding out Constantine Madden was never behind the silver mask, it really got me thinking who the enemy of death actually would have to be. Since Constantine’s soul was living inside of Callum Hunt’s body, the enemy of Death could never be Constantine Madden.

For me it was a shock to find out Callum was the “enemy of death”. Now I did think Callum would be the Makar, but I never ever thought about Callum being the enemy of death. So this was really thrilling and exciting to find out. It really makes the story so much more interesting.

I’m really looking forward to read more about Callum and him being the Enemy of Death.  

Have you read this book? 

If you were Callum, would you have done the same? 

Please let me know in the comments down below. 

xx Zoë.